India

3 derailments and one near miss, Railways faces tough day

PTI

Three trains jumped off the tracks and another derailment was averted on Thursday in Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi and Maharashtra within a span of nine hours, the latest in a string of such incidents which saw the exit of Suresh Prabhu as Railway Minister in the Cabinet reshuffle last Sunday.

luckily, barring injury to a passenger in the mishap in the national capital, no casualties were reported in other incidents.The first derailment occured at 6:25 am when seven coaches of the Jabalpur-bound Shaktipunj Express went off the tracks near the Obra Dam station in UP's Sonbhadra district.

Within hours, at around 11:45 pm, the Ranchi-Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed near Minto bridge in the national capital, leaving one person injured. These were folowed by yet another derailment of a goods train in Maharashtra's Khandala at 3:55 pm, railway officials said.

An accident was averted after locals spotted a fracture in a track between Farrukhabad and Fatehgarh in UP, minutes before the Kalindi Express was scheduled to pass the place, officials said in Farrukhabad.